Oct 29, 2010

An open letter to Ohio progressives from Dan La Botz, Socialist Party candidate for US Senate. Sent in to TPID via email:

Dear Friends and Fellow Progressives,

In the Senate race, the Democratic Party in Ohio has largely ignored your wishes, crushed your hopes, and now abandons you to the Republican Rob Portman. In the beginning, when many and perhaps most of you wanted Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to be the Senate candidate, the Democratic Party organization used its power and its money to push Brunner aside and impose Lee Fisher as the candidate. Now, as we approach election day, Lee Fisher has apparently thrown in the towel, giving up on his race and turning his remaining campaign funds over to the Democratic Party to use for other races where they think they still have a chance.

What are you going to do with Fisher having failed so badly and now going down to defeat? I know that you won’t vote for Rob Portman or for the Libertarian or Constitution or party candidates who are perhaps even further right than he is. But I am afraid that you might waste your vote by casting it for Lee Fisher. This would be squandering your vote.

First, of course, as you know it was Fisher who pushed Brunner and the progressives aside. Second, Fisher refused to take a strong stand on issues that concern us progressives, like getting out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Third, even the Ohio AFL-CIO didn’t endorse Fisher (look at the mailing you got or go to the website and you’ll see his name is not on the voting card: http://www.ohaflcio.org/2010endorsements.html) Finally, Fisher ran a lackluster campaign failing to go out and fight for the principles you believe in.

And now Fisher is anywhere between 10 and 20 points behind in the polls. He doesn’t stand a chance of winning. If you vote for Fisher now, you just waste your vote. It won’t harm the Republicans. And worst of all it will convince the Democrats that they don’t really need to pay attention to progressives like you, since you’ll always bite the bullet and vote for them anyway.

So, this year, don’t knuckle under. Send a message to the Republicans, to the Democrats and to Washington. Let them know that you’re tired of being dragged to the right, that you want a progressive alternative. Vote on November 2 for Dan La Botz, Socialist Party candidate for the U.S. Senate. You won’t be alone. Cincinnati’s CityBeat has endorsed me and progressives around the state have let me know they’re voting for me.

Thanks for giving this some thought. Look at my website and you'll see we believe in many of the same things. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other soon at the same demonstrations against the war, for immigrant rights, for gay rights, and for all the other things we believe in. Take care.